Our sister site Elle chats it up with the brand's head of women's design to discuss beach culture, Jenna Lyons, and the heels everybody wants to get their hands on.

"No talking!" decreed Jenna Lyons, but she wasn't in a movie theater — she was moments away from debuting J.Crew's spring 2014 collection. Her presentation at Lincoln Center starred a coed group of models, all giggly, chatting and jumping like kids at their first school dance. Cute as they were, the fresh-faced beauties were upstaged by Sophia Webster's new shoes for the all-American brand. "I'm already wearing mine," Lyons winked, kicking up her foot to reveal a colorful stiletto. "I know they don't technically come out until next year, but I don't think I'm going to take them off for a while."

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Meanwhile, head of women's design, Tom Mora gave us an in-depth tour of the new collection, and responded to online protests over J.Crew's newfound edge.

Elle: We spy some wave prints. Is this collection about the ocean?Tom Mora: It's about the duality of beach culture. So I was thinking about the beach, and specifically surfers.

Elle: This is because Jenna Lyons likes to surf, isn't it?TM: [Laughs] Right?! So surfers have such a strength to them, but there's also such a casual element to them. So that's where you get the bold colors and the technical prints in these clothes. Then to contrast that, I was thinking of the Venetian coast at the turn of the century. So it's really proper with laces, eyelets, linen jackets, tailoring, and nautical stripes. And the contrast created a really nice feeling in the studio.

Elle: There's been a lot of online debate about J.Crew's new catalogs, and how the outfits look "too edgy" for longtime fans. Can you respond to that?TM: You know, it's funny. I think we're a brand that does so many different things. We speak so many different ways. We have online photos, the style guide, the show — you can deconstruct all of these pieces, and they're all truly classic wearable pieces, it's only how they're put together that's different. And that's just a suggestion to our customer. We're saying, "This is our idea. This is a new way to do something." And I think it's really still J.Crew at its heart.

Elle: Can we steal a pair of Sophia Webster for J.Crew heels on the way out?TM: You can try! You know, we couldn't even decide which shoes to put in the show, because Sophia sent us more than 30 designs! I kind of wish the models could wear one pair, and hold another pair in their hands.

Elle: They're too good. Have any gone missing from your office?TM: None yet! But the girls in the office are all going to be really upset, because the show samples only come in a size nine-and-a-half because that's what the models wear. So the shoe samples will come back to the office, everyone will try to steal them — and then they'll see the size and go, "Really? Come on."